Multiple cutting edge rotary tool

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a multiple cutting edge rotary tool having a radial individual adjustment of each cutting edge or having a central adjustment for all cutting edges together. The multiple cutting edge rotary tool used for machining has a number of holders that have, in the front part, cavities for accommodating cutting plates and have, in the area between their ends, a hole for passing through a fixing device with which each holder can be fixed to a support. The holder, on its portion that supports the cutting plate, can be elastically deflected in relation to a support by means of an adjusting device. In addition, the holder is provided with an opening and forms a parallel spiral spring arrangement whereby the cutting plate, during its adjustment, is essentially subjected to a parallel displacement with regard to the cutting edge. The adjusting device is provided in the form of a central adjusting screw which, as an axially adjustable differential screw, retains, by means of a lifting motion of the differential screw, the holder in a manner that permits it to be radially displaced in relation to its support and without play. The retention of said holder is effected by adjustable pressure pieces that are supported on parts of the adjusting screw.

[0001] The invention relates to a multi-edged rotary tool with individual adjustment in a radial direction of each cutting tip or with central adjustment for all the cutting tips together.

[0002] DE 198 27 778 A1 discloses a rotary tool in which a cutting tip can be radially adjusted in a sensitive manner on a parallel spring by means of an adjusting screw without a stick-slip effect.

[0003] The tool is conceived as a single cutter; a plurality of cutting tips may be arranged one behind the other on a carrier. It can be used in particular for small bores.

[0004] Such a tool constitutes a unit of small construction. Its dimensions can be selected in such a way that it is also suitable for small bore hole diameters. In this case, axial adjustability can also be readily achieved, as is often necessary in order to produce, for example, stepped bores. For all that, however, the tool is distinguished by especially advantageous adjustability in the radial direction without another variable, in particular the setting angle, causing undesirable effects in the process. This is achieved in one embodiment by the holder being designed as a parallel bending spring arrangement. This refers to a configuration in which the head part of the holder, i.e. the part carrying the cutting tip, essentially experiences a displacement parallel to itself using elastic bending of parts of the holder.

[0005] The design can be made in such a way that the holder is essentially without load in the deflected state, and an elastic restoring force which counteracts a deflection only occurs when the adjusting device is actuated from a zero or initial position. In an especially advantageous manner, however, the holder is already held under prestress in the nondeflected state, so that freedom from play is ensured from the outset. This can be achieved by the holder forming a spring being firmly screwed to the parent body and by bearing directly against the adjusting screw in the process.

[0006] There are various possible embodiments for the aperture provided for this parallel spring design, namely those having a recess in the corner regions, which prevent notch stresses. In a very favorable embodiment, the aperture essentially has the shape of a U with a central fastening tongue.

[0007] The adjusting device is designed as a screw which engages in a thread of the parent part and is supported on the parent part. In an especially expedient embodiment, the adjusting screw together with the holder has such a wedge-surface pair that no self-locking can occur. As a result, the wedge surfaces can slide when the screw is turned in the release direction as a result of the high prestress, i.e. the holder always stays in contact with the screw.

[0008] The wedge-surface pair between holder and adjusting screw can be produced, for example, by a convex or conical section of the screw, paired with a vertical section of the holder, or also vice versa, or by mixed forms. The important factors are the direct contact of the elements and their effective direction relative to one another.

[0009] With such an adjusting device, it is possible to deflect the cutting tip radially to a finer degree than 3 μm and to produce correspondingly accurate bores. The repetitive accuracy is so precise that the movement of the adjusting screw at an annular scale arranged thereon relative to a reference point on the parent body can be assigned to a corresponding radial adjustment of the cutting tip. A circular measure of 1 mm at the screw corresponds, for example, to {fraction (1/1000)} mm at the cutting tip. This repetitive accuracy is a prerequisite for maintaining quality conditions required by DIN/ISO 9000 ff.

[0010] The use of such a design for other boring purposes is not disclosed; in particular bore diameters of about 10 to 50 mm are to be realized.

[0011] The problem underlying the invention is therefore to also use such a favorable design according to the prior art for other tools. The problem is achieved according to the invention by the features of claims 1 and 2. Advantageous developments of the invention are covered in the dependent claims.

[0012] The first solution comprises a multi-edged rotary tool for machining, having a plurality of holders which, in the front part, have receptacles for cutting tips and, in the region between their ends, have a hole for the passage of a fastener, with which each holder can be fixed on a carrier, each of the holders, at its part carrying the cutting tip, being capable of being individually elastically deflected radially relative to a support by means of an adjusting device.

[0013] The number of cutting tips may be 3, 5, 7 or another multiple, the number being selected in such a way that no chatter marks are produced during the cutting of a bore, each cutting tip cutting the full circle. Such a tool can be advantageously used, for example, for cylinder bores in vehicle engines, in particular also on transfer lines. In this case, the individual cutting tips are preset to the desired diameter and can in each case be reset if required during operation by an individual adjusting device at each wedge-surface pair for each cutting tip. Apart from the specific problem of accommodating the multiplicity of cutting tips with such a parallel spring arrangement on the circumference of a boring bar or of a tool head, there is still the problem of being able to clearly prestress the interacting cutting tips. As already known per se from the prior art, the holder of each cutting tip is provided with a prestressing device which is accessible and adjustable from the circumference of the tool once the holder has been basically fixed on the tool head. The production tolerances are thus primarily compensated for, whereas the adjusting device is used for the diameter adaptation.

[0014] In a second solution, such a multi-edged rotary tool, in a similar manner to the first solution, is provided with a special adjusting device which is designed as a central adjusting screw which, as an axially adjustable differential screw, via adjustable pressure pieces which are supported on a taper on the differential screw, brings the holder radially into position relative to its carrier by means of a stroke movement. Here, the adjusting devices provided individually for each holder according to the first solution are therefore replaced with pressure pieces which are moved by a central adjusting device and effect the elastic deflection of the holder, resulting in a radial infeed of the cutting tips for producing a bore diameter different from that set beforehand. In order to permit such a central adjustment, each parallel spring, each holder, must be preset on its own with a screw and a pressure bolt in order to compensate for production tolerances and possible tolerances of the cutting blades and the like and to set the rotary tool to a respective round bore diameter. This must be done separately for each bore diameter to be produced, since tolerances, at least to the accuracies aimed at here within the p range, can be expected time after time when changing over from one cutting tip to another or when exchanging the tip on account of a tip fracture.

[0015] In the ideal case, therefore, all the cutting tips, e.g. the 5 cutting tips shown in the exemplary embodiment, are oriented at the circumference of the tool uniformly for one boring diameter before they can be accurately fed in by the central adjusting device to {fraction (1/1000)} mm if a random sample after the initial start-up of production, i.e. after a first cut of a bore, shows that such an adjustment is necessary.

[0016] To this end, the spindle of a machine tool, via a servomotor, engages in a coupling on the machine tool side or rear side of the rotary tool and rotates the differential screw by a defined dimension or a definable amount. This amount depends on the selected pitches of the thread and taper on the differential screw and the infeed dimension for an increase or decrease in the bore diameter.

[0017] Alternatively, the differential screw may be driven from the head of the tool by the machine rotating, for example, a device inside a transfer line, against a fixed screwdriver . . . ? . . . and the spindle by a predetermined dimension which has been determined beforehand by a computer in combination with a stepping motor. In this way, in continuous operation, during a tool Change, a diameter change can thus be achieved by a possibly relevant additionally required relative movement of the differential screw.

[0018] In addition, provision may of course be made for the machine tool spindle to serve as a torque arm when it is stopped and for a machine operator to turn this differential screw from the head of the tool manually or in a powered manner by means of an appropriate tool, thus enabling the differential screw to cover the required distance. The differential screw essentially comprises a shaft with two external threads of different pitch, these threads engaging in two sleeves with conical outer sections. By axial displacement of the nut-like sleeves relative to one another, a differential sleeve provided with a tapered or convex outer contour is pushed in or out by the nut-like sleeves and at the same time, transversely to the axis of the differential screw via a pressure piece which is supported on the differential sleeve, effects the expansion or contraction of the parallel spring arrangements concentrically, since the pressure pieces are under prestress.

[0019] The conicity or amount of taper of the sleeves can be selected in such a way that a defined differential movement is in any case produced if the differential screw is rotated and sleeve parts are axially displaced.

[0020] A problem in this case could be a very accurate infeed if the taper parts of the sleeves have not been mounted radially free of play relative to the differential screw. Provision is therefore made in an embodiment of the invention for the taper parts of the differential screw to be mounted at the circumference according to the proven steady rest principle, at least some of the bearing elements of the steady rest preferably likewise having a prestress in the radial direction by corresponding spring elements.

[0021] In order to achieve an axial movement of the differential sleeve, the taper part or a plurality of taper parts of all sleeves must be prevented from rotating by an appropriate element, e.g. a screw or a pin which can be inserted from the outside into a corresponding recess, that is to say said taper parts form a torque arm. Instead of a mounting according to the steady rest principle, spring elements known per se are of course also used for the radial restraint of the taper parts, if the person skilled in the art makes an appropriate selection.

[0022] The thread of the differential screw or the threads in the taper parts must be designed free of play relative to the elements to be moved from the machine side or from the tool head side in order to maintain the accuracy requirements. Provision is therefore made for the thread to also be made free of play, for example by elastic nuts with longitudinal slots which are to be fitted during the assembly and sit on the thread under tension, so that ultimately tight rotation, free of play, of the thread is achieved.

[0023] An axial spring can achieve the effect that an adjustment of the differential screw is also possible only against spring pressure and thus no play occurs during the reversal of the rotary movement.

[0024] The problem and the advantage of the present invention are explained in the attached drawings and claims with reference to exemplary embodiments.

[0025] In the drawings:

[0026]FIG. 1 shows a perspective side view;

[0027]FIG. 2 shows a diagrammatic side view of a tool with central adjustment of five cutting tips;

[0028]FIG. 2a shows a front view of the same respective tool;

[0029]FIG. 3 shows section A-A according to FIG. 2 in a first embodiment;

[0030]FIGS. 3a and 3 b show sections A′-A′ and A″-A″, respectively, similar to FIG. 3 in further

[0031]FIG. 4 shows a section B-B according to FIG. 2;

[0032]FIG. 5 shows a perspective side view like FIG. 2, but for a tool with individual adjustment of the five cutting tips.

[0033] In the following text, parts having an identical function or a function acting in the same way are cited with the same reference numerals in different designs.

[0034] Arranged in the tool head 2 is a differential screw 1 which, via a multiple-spline groove 3 in which the spindle of a machine M engages via a servomotor, is axially adjustable in a rotational manner and in the process engages by means of threads 31 and 32 in complementary threads in taper sleeves 9, 10 (FIG. 3). The threads have different pitch, so that the sleeve 5, which can only move axially on account of driving pin 4, is ultimately displaced against the pressure of the spring 7. At the same time, the differential screw is supported in sleeve 11 via sleeve 10, so that sleeve 9 and thus sleeve 5 are displaced axially forward or rearward depending on the direction of rotation of the servomotor; the maximum deflection of the spring 7 is shown, the sleeves 9 and 10 bearing against one another at this maximum deflection. During the displacement, a radial adjustment of the pressure pieces V (arrow V) is effected at the tapered outer contour 13 of the sleeve 5 connected to the screw, a factor which can be seen in particular in FIG. 4. Instead of the frustum of a cone, the sleeve 5 may be designed as a frustum of a pyramid with a number of surfaces corresponding to the number of cutting tips used at the circumference of the tool. The pressure pieces act on holders 21, on which cutting tips 20 sit, and thus vary the diameter to be produced by means of the cutting tips. Instead of the pressure pieces shown, eccentric elements or toggle-lever elements may also be used for the infeed of the cutting tips, in which case the displacement of the elements, which is not always linear and is effected by the central adjustment, is calculated automatically via a Computer (not shown).

[0035] Via screws 22, the holders 21, which are fixed by pins 23, can be rotated about the pins and can thus be preset in diameter with prestress against the carrier 2 in order to avoid coarse tolerances.

[0036] For an accurate infeed, the differential screw is held free of play radially by the central bore for differential screw and sleeves in the tool 2 having a widened portion (here shown exaggerated) at the outer contour 13, two spring elements 6 lying opposite this widened portion according to the steady rest principle. As a result, an axial displacement of the sleeve 5 can take place, but no lifting can take place from this position in the radial direction on account of the prestressing by the spring elements 6. Instead of this arrangement, spring elements which pass through the sleeve 5, e.g. at location 8, and/or the tool body 2 and having the same effect can also be used. In the solution shown, the spring elements are designed as plastic balls pressed into the taper sleeve 5.

[0037] The thread on differential screw 1 and sleeves 9, 10 should also be free of play. This is preferably realized by conical sleeves or nuts 9, 10 which have a longitudinal slot according to FIG. 3. The sleeves are pushed into the outer sleeves 5, 11 of complementary conical design to such an extent that they are pressed together, so that ultimately the thread becomes tight; the sleeves 9, 10 are then fixed, e.g. by adhesive bonding or screwing (not shown). In addition, the axial spring 7 provides for the elimination of the reverse play.

[0038] In addition, the accurate infeed or adjustment of the cutting tips with infeed rates of {fraction (1/1000)} mm requires tribological optimization at all contact pairs under load, which has to be correspondingly measured by the person skilled in the art. An adjusting torque at the differential screw of less than 20 Nm has proved to be advantageous.

[0039]FIG. 3a shows a design of the tool with which facing operations are also possible on the workpiece W. Here, the pressure pieces V are replaced with a combination of pressure piece V and a pressure screw 25. The screw is mounted in pressure piece V and in the holder 21 or is guided in corresponding threads, so that an additional adjustment is possible here. The pressure piece V is formed from bronze or bearing metal; the screw, depending on the adjusting range or the selected infeed rate for the cutting tip 20 or the holder 21, can be provided with threads of different pitch—even with a pitch difference of the threads—for achieving the desired diameter D.

[0040]FIG. 3b shows a central adjustment device of a five-edged tool in which the multiple-spline groove 3′ is provided on the side of the workpiece W of the tool body 2′.

[0041] Finally, FIG. 5 shows a five-edged tool 2″ with individual adjustment of the cutting tips 20′ by means of corresponding adjusting screws 25′ known per se. 

1. A multi-edged rotary tool for machining, having a plurality of holders which, in the front part, have receptacles for cutting tips and, in the region between their ends, have a hole for the passage of a fastener, with which each holder can be fixed on a carrier, the holder, at its part carrying the cutting tip, being capable of being elastically deflected relative to a support by means of an adjusting device, the holder being provided with an aperture and forming a parallel bending spring arrangement, so that the cutting tip, during its adjustment, experiences essentially a parallel displacement with respect to the cutting edge, the adjusting device is designed as an adjusting screw, which, on one part of the screw, forms a complementary wedge-surface pair together with a complementary zone on the holder, it being possible for each holder (21′) to be preset in its position relative to its carrier (2′) by a pressure screw (22) at the end opposite the cutting tip (20′).
 2. A multi-edged rotary tool for machining, having a plurality of holders which, in the front part, have receptacles for cutting tips and, in the region between their ends, have a hole for the passage of a fastener, with which each holder can be fixed on a carrier, the holder, at its part carrying the cutting tip, being capable of being elastically deflected relative to a support by means of an adjusting device, the holder being provided with an aperture and forming a parallel bending spring arrangement, so that the cutting tip, during its adjustment, experiences essentially a parallel displacement with respect to the cutting edge, the adjusting device is designed as an adjusting screw (1, 3, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 31, 32) which, as an axially adjustable differential screw (1), via adjustable pressure pieces (V) which are supported on parts (13) of the adjusting screw, holds the holder in a radially movable manner relative to its carrier (2) by a stroke movement of the differential screw (1).
 3. The tool as claimed in claim 2, wherein the parts (13) of the adjusting screw on which the pressure pieces (V) are supported are of tapered design.
 4. The tool as claimed in claim 2, wherein the parts (13) of the adjusting screw on which the pressure pieces (V) are supported are designed in a pyramid shape.
 5. The tool as claimed in one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the differential screw (1) is rotationally movable via an engagement device (3, 3′) from the machine side M or from the workpiece side W.
 6. The tool as claimed in one of claims 2 to 5, wherein the differential screw (1) is embedded in a sleeve (5), which in turn is mounted according to the steady rest principle at the outer circumference (13) in the tool body (2, 2′).
 7. The tool as claimed in one of claims 2 to 6, wherein the sleeve (5) is mounted radially free of play in spring elements (6, 6′).
 8. The tool as claimed in one of claims 2 to 7, wherein the pressure pieces (V) are composed of a part made of bronze or bearing metal and a pressure screw (25). 